100k to open a shop in BCN expensive? It's in the top ten visited cities
in the planet. 100K buys you a coffee in the Ramblas. In any case, it's not only about money or belonging to the Friends of Satan, although it helps. Burocratic patience, burocratic luck, politics, choice of location, personal infrastructures... those things apart from the costs.
Some succeed, why not? It's a cash bizz, that too.

__________________Actually, the universal language is not English, but poorly spoken English (GGM)

What happened with the Cannabis Clubs here was anticipated by many, when all this huge clubs with hundreds or even thousands of members started fucking around and precipitating everything. It was actually a deja-vu of what happened in Swizterland in the late 90s. With our conservative government and outdated legal system, this would happen sooner or later. They were just waiting for us to take the wrong steps.

We used to have relaxed laws and the private Cannabis Association model has been working for many years, until the greedy people and foreigners started their narc-operations all over the biggest cities and wanted to turn Spain into the new weed tourism spot, advertising it as the new and hottest alternative to Amsterdam. The problem is that the coffeeshop/dispensary concept they were trying to import into Spain was actually illegal here, while it was actually legal in Holland. Clubs needed to be private, non-lucrative, closed and controlled to make it work. At least while the Cannabis laws don't change worldwide.

This actually hurted the whole movement so much. But the clubs were making so much noise (like when the idiots were advertising all over the big cities in order to attract canna-tourists, importing buds from California or just doing everything for the money) that the national Supreme Court had to put a stop on it, ruining everything up for everyone, including the humble people who only wanted to fight for the movement and whose goals weren't actually making money but normalizing a situation we needed to regulate since a long time ago.

Now the time for the big Cannabis clubs ruled by narc-wannabes and shameless greedy people has come to an end. The smaller and serious Cannabis associations may still hardly survive but that's what you get when a bunch of idiots are pushing the limits way too much. Even the National Federation of Cannabis Associations became a joke nowadays. They actually had a great chance to make an impact on the laws but they actually wasted it because they were just a bunch of greedy people trying to become legal dealers like the 90% of Clubs here.

I guess it was nice while it lasted... at least for those who made millions in Spain out selling weed "legally"! For the rest, nothing will change. Anyway the real front of fight nowadays should be the regulation for anyone who wants to grow their own medicine or cherished flowers at home, without fearing police raids or having to defend himself at the court. Thats where the real fight is.

I agree in essence with what you say, and i talk as someone who never joined a club and keep weed and bussiness in different planets. But i'm also quite pragmatic, and greed is like running water that enters every available hole, whereas tokers rights are science fiction in today's world politics.
In my book, i hid my plants 35 years ago and i hide my plants today, only deeper. I'm not into conspirations but whatever is the roadmap for weed in social laws, home growers for self supply is not necessarily a stopover.
But i can't blame or judge anybody. It's futile for it's unavoidable. Question is, why the bussiness is not controlled by locals? Answer is, we're too romantic.
I don't envy them, though, is getting an ugly trade waiting for its own Garzon. 120 sq cm boxes hopefully will be spared. Cops still need a registry judge order to enter your property.

__________________Actually, the universal language is not English, but poorly spoken English (GGM)